1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device that is attached to a boat trailer in order to give the driver of a vehicle pulling the trailer a visual cue indicating that the trailer is at an appropriate water depth to recover the boat onto the trailer.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Boating is a great pastime. Sitting on the water and fishing or just doing nothing but floating is a great way to spend a day. As much fun as boating is, there is work, sometimes frustrating work, that goes into boat usage. As most people are not fortunate enough to actually live on the water, they must launch and recover their boats from a boat ramp. Launching is relatively straightforward, once backing a trailer is mastered of course. Just back the boat trailer into the water until the boat begins to float, float the boat clear of the trailer, pull the trailer back out of the water, and park the tow vehicle and trailer and go boating. If a driver is not sure if the trailer has reached a sufficient depth in the water that allows the boat to float clear of the trailer, the driver simply backs up sufficiently far to assure proper depth as there is no penalty for overshooting the ideal depth for the trailer for boat launch. The problem comes during boat recovery. The trailer must be positioned at an appropriate depth to achieve recovery of the boat, which appropriate depth is within a relatively narrow window. If the trailer is not deep enough within the water, the boat cannot pull up onto the trailer. If the trailer is too deep, then the boat may float free of the trailer possibly causing damage to the boat should it hit a nearby pier or other object and otherwise the boat is not recovered.
To address this problem, one person spots the trailer while another person backs up the tow vehicle and trailer. Once the trailer is at the appropriate depth, then the tow vehicle stops and the boat is recovered. The problem with this method is that oftentimes, a spotter is unavailable as one person needs to be driving the tow vehicle and another person needs to be driving the boat. A third person may not always be available. Even if a spotter is available, it is oftentimes difficult to pinpoint the appropriate depth of the trailer for proper boat recovery thereonto. A series of frustrating trial and error attempts must be made in order to achieve proper trailer depth. This problem is especially acute when a single person is towing and recovering, wherein such person must tie down the boat, exit the boat and back the trailer into the water, return to the boat and untie the boat and attempt to load the boat onto the trailer. If the trailer is at an improper depth, the boat must be once again tied down, exited, and the trailer depth adjusted. This trail and error method can be quite frustrating and time-consuming to the typical boater.
To address this problem, devices have been proposed that automatically determine when a trailer is at the appropriate depth within the water that assures proper boat recovery onto the trailer and give the driver a cue, either audio, visual, or both of such a condition. These devices, which work with varying degrees of competence, tend to be unusually complex in design and construction making them relatively expensive to manufacture and obtain by a typical boat owner. Additionally, some such devices require extensive modifications to the trailer, which modifications many trailer owners are unwilling to make.
Accordingly, a device is needed that can quickly and accurately determine when a boat trailer is at the proper depth within the water to allow a boat to be easily recovered onto the waiting trailer. Such a device must be of relatively simple design and construction so that it is relatively inexpensive to manufacture so as to be affordable to a large segment of boat trailer owners. Such a device must be relatively simple to install so that extensive modifications to the trailer are not required.